Pokemon Trackers
by Kataphrut
Summary: Howard, Troy and Adrian are Pokemon Trackers, who hunt and capture Pokemon for the Safari Zone the old fashioned way; with guns. Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1

This story was written, conceived and published in the Fan-Fiction foum of the Pokedox Message Board, a lovely forum just off the Information Super Highway.

Also, it has the next 3 chapters already posted on it, so if you enjoy this story, then why not drop in and pay a visit? Maybe start an account and join in while you're there.

**Chapter One: A Valuable Service**

_Since the Pokemon craze of the mid-to-late 90s, the Fuchsia City Safari Zone had become the most popular tourist attraction in Kanto, beating the previous winner, the historic Cinnabar Mansion in the first year alone. The owner of the Mansion could not be reached for comment, as he had perished in the Great Fire of the Historic Cinnabar Mansion, which was an unrelated incident._**BSSSSSSSSHHHHHH**

Of course the Park is best known for it's rare and exotic Pokemon wildlife and it's bizarre time constrictions, but no good park would be complete without a good staff. Our latest advertisement and image-bluster is dedicated to the most irreplaceable staff team on premise: the Safari Zone Park Trackers.

Our Park Trackers use the latest advanced equipment to contain and capture an incredible variety of Pokemon around the park, which they deliver every week for your entertainment.

So every time your laughing child wanders over to pat a grazing Nidorino on the head and subsequently gets sent to the Emergency Ward to have the venom drained, remember to thank the park trackers for their valuable serv

An image of a young boy with a big grin and a purple spike lodged in his hand disappeared from the screen, replaced by a flurry of blaring static. I cursed and frantically fiddled with the wire-antennae, perched atop the ancient TV. But it was no use; the old television had clonked out for the evening.

"Damnit" I sighed and sunk back onto the tiny old sofa that dominated the cabin living room. With the TV out of commission, it would feel like ages before anything interesting happened.

To my right, Troy sat at a small, wooden desk in the corner of the cabin, twiddling the knobs on a dusty two-way radio. Upon noticing me slumping into the chair, he stopped twiddling and turned to face me.

"TV not working again, Howie?" he asked patiently. Of course we both knew it wasn't, but Troy loved to start conversations just so he had someone to complain to. I guess it must be pretty lonely, chatting with people over a radio all day.

"Nah, the damn thing's got blank" I replied, "We'll have to let it cool down for a bit. Again." I added dryly.

"Again? That must be the third time this week! So I suppose the Warden gave us that TV so we could pass the time staring at a blank screen, then? Ah, the wonders of ancient technology! Those sapiens from the 1800s are ages ahead of us!"

As Troy was raving, I found myself impatiently drumming my fingers on the armrests of the couch. I gazed up at the clock on the wall above the doorway. It had just gone quarter-to five.

"Stuff this", I said, getting up off the couch, "Troy, I'm going out to wait for Adrian."

"Don't waste your time, Howard. He probably lost the jeep behind a stump again".

I sighed and wandered out of the cabin and into the dusk.

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Since getting that tracking job at the Safari Zone (yes, the one that was just on the TV) we'd been living out in that rustic old outpost for 4 years, only ever returning to civilisation on Christmas Day.

The cabin itself was very generic; it had a bedroom, which the 3 of us shared. We didn't have a kitchen and we practically lived on the enormous crates of peanuts that the warden supplied us with every month. Troy said that sometimes he had dreams of being chased by angry peanut people through a dark forest, screaming at him about the nutritional benefits of peanuts.

We sometimes liked to light a fire at night, and pretend we were roasting marshmallows, but that often attracted Venonats. And, sometimes Venonats would attract themselves. So, when I encountered an abnormally sized purple hairball sniffing around just outside the cabin, I wasn't surprised in the least.

That didn't mean I wasn't annoyed.

"Oi! Get lost, you!" I yelled. The little bug looked up at me with its enormous compounds eyes, let out a soft, but shrill squeak and then darted off behind the cabin. I had planned on chasing it away from the place altogether, but at that moment I heard the distant rumble of an engine. I turned to face the dusty road that led up from the park gate to our humble abode and saw the blare of headlights coming from a jeep; Adrian was back.

Adrian was a lot younger than Troy or me; he was still in his late teens, while we were both mid-twenties life-loving bachelors. He was also the only one of us who genuinely gave a damn about the environment or the Pokemon that inhabited the zone, having joined up primarily to add some pictures to his ongoing Pokemon photo collection.

Attached to the back of the jeep was a large wooden storage crate; I could already hear the peanuts rattling around inside it. As Adrian parked the jeep just outside the cabin, I heard the familiar lurch of the breaks and the fading _chugga, chugga, chugga_ of the engine dying down. Like everything else in my life, this car was past its expiry date.

Adrian climbed out o the jeep and waved to me as I walked over to greet him.

"Hey Adrian", I said, "good trip?"

"Hey Howard", he replied cheerfully, "it was great! When I got there, they were feeding those Kangaskhan that we caught the other day! I even got to feed one of the babies!"

"Great!" interjected Troy, who had just joined us; "Let's here all about Adrian's fascinating adventure at the Kangaskhan Petting Zoo after we've had our dinner!"

"Hey Troy!" Adrian said, still as cheerful and upbeat, "How was work this arvo?"

"Well, Adie, my man", Troy said, putting his arm around Adrian's shoulders, "I think you'll be glad to know that your arrival with these yummy peanuts has been the highlight of my evening. Now" he said, turning to me and brandishing a crowbar, "Howard, if you'd be so kind. Let's try to avoid any accidents."

"Yeah, right" I muttered, taking the crowbar from him, "Stand back". Troy and Adrian took several steps away, presumably afraid that the crowbar would fly out of my hands and smash their jaws in.

We wouldn't want a repeat of that little debacle, would we?

I grasped the tool in both hands and angled it towards the crate, before giving it a mighty swing towards a convenient nook.

THUNK! The bar nestled in the side of the box. I took a breath, then pushed down on the bar, prying the crate open. The heavy jungle air soon became ripe with the stench of cheap packing peanuts as they poured out of the crate and on to the grass by the hundred.

"Excellent" Troy said, rubbing his hands with glee, "Well fellas, let's take 'em in and chow down!"

"Better hurry up then, since that little guy's about to beat you to it", Adrian pointed out.

It didn't take long for me and Troy to realise what he was talking about; the Venonat that I had met outside was now up on the cabin roof, staring eagerly at the pile of peanuts lying idly on the ground.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: We Are Stuffed!**

"OI! Get lost, you hairy little rat!" Troy shouted. But the bug Pokemon ignored him and bounded off the roof and scurried with surprising speed over to the peanut pile.

While Adrian watched in oblivious curiosity, Troy and I both leapt at the beast to block the crate, but the hungry Venonat was having none of it. It expertly weaved between our hands as we both tried and failed to stop it, causing us to land with a hard thump on the ground. It then jumped over us to the pile and took a handful of peanuts in its stubby paws.

"HEY! No you don…AAACK!" Troy's yell was stifled with shock as a long, green blur intercepted the escaping Venonat and snatched it up!

Venonat dropped the peanuts and wailed in terror as a long green vine reeled it in towards a waiting mouth. The Pokemon the mouth and vine belonged to flicked the insect into its toothy maw and chomped down. There was a sickening crunch and then the Pokemon let out a happy whistle.

It was Carnivine. He was a large, Venus flytrap Pokemon who hung around the cabin, feeding off the insects and peanuts, which we had in plentiful supply. Since we met him, I'd been content to keep him around the place, as a faithful companion/bug repellent. Despite his overbearing friendliness, he actually made quite a good companion.

"Are you still keeping that pest around?" Troy moaned, eyeing Carnivine disdainfully, "That damn thing tried to eat me last week!"

"Hey, he's just hungry!" I argued, "It's what these Carnivine do! He wouldn't have actually swallowed you! Besides" I chuckled, "your head wouldn't fit anyway."

Troy stared at me like I had just stepped off the short, yellow bus. "Howie, I'm all for saving the peanuts, but that was bloody revolting! Look, there are still bits of mashed up Venonat trailing from his hideous lips!"

I glanced over at Carnivine, who was ignoring us entirely. He now had his head buried in the pile of peanuts. Adrian was also sneaking a quiet handful into his chubby cheeks.

"HEY! HEY!" Toy yelled angrily, "Get out of those, you friggin' crab-weed!"

However, I could tell Carnivine wasn't eating, since there weren't any noticeable lumps of food sliding down his pencil-thin throat. He was looking for something in that pile.

Moments later Carnivine stopped shuffling through the peanuts and gagged heavily. His long stalk was twisting in random directions and he appeared to be pulling on something with his mouth.

"Hey fellas!" cried Adrian, "he's got a bite!"

The three of us grabbed Carnivine's stalk and began pulling. His head suddenly burst from the pile, with something apparently lodged in his jaws. We all stepped back as Carnivine released what he had found in the crate.

From out of his mouth, a baby Kangaskhan came tumbling out.

"Oh." Said I.

"Ah" Said Adrian.

"Damn, it better not've shat in the crate!" Exclaimed Troy.

The Kangaskhan baby was now staring wide-eyed at us, clearly not at ease with its surroundings. It grabbed a peanut from the scattered pile and gulped it down.

"Where the hell did it come from?" I wondered.

I looked at Troy. He looked at me. It hit us both at the same time and we turned to face Adrian.

"Adrian" Troy said sweetly, "You wouldn't happen to know how this delightful urchin found it's way into our peanut supply, would you?"

"No, no, no!" Adrian stammered, "Not at all!"

"Are you sure, Adie?" I asked, "You did mention feeding a Kangaskhan baby. You don't think it could've got…mixed up somehow, do you?"

"Or, you couldn't bare the thought of going another week without petting some glassy-eyed infant Pokemon, so you swiped him under the warden's overpriced nose?" Troy added cordially.

"IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW IT GOT THERE!" Adrian cried, frantically shielding his face with is hands as if he was afraid we were about to stone him, "what matters is getting it back before it's mother knows it's gone!"

"Or the warden" Troy added, "if he finds out about this, we'll have our arses handed to us in so many ways."

"Well, there's no point wasting time" I said, "let's get the crate inside then we can go back to the warehouse and return the baby."

"But it's getting dark" Troy gulped, "you know how unfriendly some of these nocturnal Pokemon can be. Remember what happened with that Victreebel?"

"God, yes", I replied, trying my best to suppress that particular recollection, "Better take Carnivine with us."

Upon hearing this, Carnivine let out a soft _whoop_ of approval. Troy however, was less than excited.

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Night had fallen on the forest; inside the cabin, Adrian and I packed our bags under the bright glow of an overhanging ceiling light. Troy sat at his desk, plugged into the radio, trying to contact the warehouse.

"Will you be taking your torch?" Adrian asked, slipping a fresh battery into his.

"Nah", I replied, "That should be enough. How long's the drive, anyway?"

"Well, that depends" Adrian pondered aloud, "It's about 4 minutes to the savannah. Might run into a couple of bloodthirsty Victreebel along the way so that could set us back a few minutes. Smooth sailing through most of the savannah, may get attacked by nesting Skarmory. Should reach the main road in 20 minutes; it's a bit rocky, so we'll probably lose a tire 'bout halfway down. Creek's flooded, so we'll have to take a detour through Toxic Gulch. The warehouse is due 10 minutes south of the gulch, just past the Beedril forest."

Jesus! "How long would that be?" I asked, not particularly keen on the reply.

"'Bout 45 minutes" Adie replied, "barring any trouble along the way."

"Well, that's not too bad" I muttered uncertainly, "but I'd better bring the rifle, just in case."

Trackers were supplied with a hunting rifle for capturing Pokemon. Mine was a lovely bolt-action gun, fitted to act as a tranquilliser rifle. Since we had no Pokemon of our own for captures (Carnivine doesn't really count), I ended up growing attached to mine over the course of the job (I swear to God I'm not a loony). I was a pretty good shot, too. I once bullseyed a Goldeen as it was leaping out of a nearby pond. That was a good meal.

Anyway, I went into the "bedroom" and took my rifle from the rack on the wall, opposite my bed. She was a lovely old rifle; based off the old Lee-Enfield rifles from the UK, she was made of a nice, well-polished timber and carried up to 20 tranquilliser rounds, although they had to be loaded one at a time. She had a powerful sniper scope attached for distance encounters, but because most of my charges were jungle Pokemon, I had learned to get in good shots firing from the hip.

I slung the rifle over my back and returned to the living room; Adie sat on the couch, feeding the stowaway, who seemed pretty well behaved for a Kangaskhan youth. Carnivine had dug his roots into the cracks in the floor and was now standing motionless with his jaws hanging wide-open to trap any unweary insects. He was napping. Lastly, Troy was sitting at the radio, arguing into a headpiece.

"Look Duncan, can you just keep the warehouse open for another hour? Maybe 55 minutes…Duncan, no…you can't leave…look mate, I don't care about your sons friggin' birth! We have an important delivery to make!" Troy shrieked into the receiver. It seemed Duncan didn't plan on leaving the warehouse open for us.

"The delivery? Ummm…" Troy looked around hastily, before setting his eyes on the slumbering Carnivine, "Errr…ah! We found a rare breed of Venus Fly Trap out in the forest! It's 6 feet tall, has teeth like carving knives and feeds on, errmm…Jigglypuff! Yes, Jigglypuff! You know…how the warden hates Jigglypuff, but also loves exotic plants! We figured it'd be the perfect Christmas present for him!"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing! Not only was he selling out my best mate as a monstrous gift, but he was also selling the lie remarkably well!

"Hmm? Oh, that'd be great! Thanks mate! Have fun with that whole childbirth thing", Troy said excitedly, "don't worry, she'll be fine! I heard that having children isn't half as painful as what the scare mongering media would like us to think! Bye for now!" Troy flicked a switch and the buzzing sound from the radio faded away.

"We're in luck!" he told us, "Duncan said he'd leave the place open for about an hour. But we have to go now!"

Adrian hopped off the couch and grabbed the child, who had fallen asleep in his lap. "Come on, buddy" he cooed, "let's get you back to your mum."

"Hopefully, she'll see the bright side of things" Troy quivered, "these Kangaskhan mums can be violently over-protective of their young."

"Ah, don't worry Troy" I replied, "I'm sure she'll see our side of the story. But if she does give us any trouble…"I fingered the barrel of my rifle, "leave her to me.


End file.
